Wilted Rose

Chapter One ❄️

The Presidential Mansion was always kept warm due to the many fireplaces the building possessed, after the dark days winter was always the worst time of year for some families, although their pride would never admit to it. The Ravinstill family were among the elites of Panem, coming in at a close second to the Plinths- a family that made their money by illegally selling weapons to the Capitol during the war. Now the District 2 filth are among the wealthiest families in Panem. It's not often that someone is able to buy their way into the safety of The Capitol, the war made sure of that. But President Maximinius Ravinstill owed the family a debt. If it wasn't for the Plinths illegal trade, The Capitol would have crumbled and his two children would have joined their mother- six feet underground. This would never be spoken of. 

The Ravinstill twins- Felix and Solaris- were Maximinius' pride and joy. He invested so much time and money into their education, making sure both children had the highest grades possible. If one of them were eventually going to be President one day, he wanted to make sure they had everything they needed. Solaris excelled on her own. She was always top of the class at lower school and when she joined the academy, she was tied first place. Every single time. Coriolanus Snow is Solaris' biggest academic rival, the boy not dissimilar to her, has had perfect grades since he could crawl. Felix on the other hand, gets by using 'daddy's money' as the other students at the academy would say. He has no drive to achieve great things, he doesn't want to nor need to put effort into most things in his life as poor Maximinius Ravinstill will pay his way to make sure his son is up to par with his daughter. His daughter has always been much more ambitious, always strived to make her accomplishments her own and never asked her father to buy her grades, this is a quality that Maximinius has always adored. Much like her late mother, Solaris is careful with his money. Only using it for necessities such as new clothing and toiletries, school essentials and gifts. Any extra goes into her savings account. Her allowance is much higher than Felix's, yet she rarely uses it on herself. 

Sat in the plush forest green loveseat, wrapped in her favorite floral patterned woolen throw blanket was seventeen year old Solaris Raivinstill. Her long curly chocolate brown locks tied in a messy updo as to not distract her from her favorite thing- Biology homework. Thankfully, the only one of her classes that Coriolanus Snow wasn't apart of. Only 5 students from the soon to be graduating senior class took high biology. The class was heavily watched by Doctor Volumnia Gaul and it was rumoured that the student at the top of the leaderboard would be offered an internship with the mad scientist and head gamemaker once graduation came around. Solaris didn't care much for Doctor Gaul, but she did care for biology and science. Specifically the idea of creating what she'd refer to as 'muts'. Biologically engineered animals that The Capitol could use for warfare or future games once she puts her ideas through to Doctor Gaul. She wasn't close to finishing her proposal, but thankfully the homeworks deadline was for next July, when the students graduate. 

On the opposite loveseat sat Clemensia Dovecote, or Clemmie for short. Solaris couldn't tell if the girl valued her as a real friend or just used her as a means to and end. She didn't mind though, it was difficult to make real friends as the President's daughter. She liked to keep her circles small. They were friends with Arachne Crane for a while when they started at the academy, but quickly dropped her once Solaris realised she was only interested in her fathers money.

Clemensia put down her quill and paper on the coffee table and took a sip of her tea provided by the Raivinstill's Avox. "Sol, what have you chosen to write about for your proposal? I'm out of ideas."

Glancing up from her work Solaris sighed before answering "I don't write and tell, you know that Clemmie." 

"Oh come on, i know you have a million and one ideas floating around in that head of yours. Just let me use one, i promise to credit you when i'm famous." Clemensia begged, already bored by the prospect of studying on a friday night.